


Righting measures

by derholmesian



Series: A man that knows best [1]
Category: Amazon prime - Fandom, The Man in the High Castle (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Nazi Germany, Corporal Punishment, Daddy Issues, Disciplinary Spanking, Discipline, Discipline Spanking, Father Figure, Father-Son Relationship, M/M, Non-Sexual, Non-Sexual Spanking, OTK, Over the Knee, Parental Discipline, Parental Spanking, Patriarchy, Patriotism, Power Dynamics, Power Play, Spanking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:15:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24052696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/derholmesian/pseuds/derholmesian
Summary: Joe Blake comes back from his first under-cover mission. He did what he thought right, but Smith needs to remind him again to do what he-is-told.Disciplinary spanking of an adult.Comments very, very welcome.
Relationships: Joe Blake/John Smith
Series: A man that knows best [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1786282
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Righting measures

**Author's Note:**

> *This fic is set in a nazi governed country, so I warn you the characters express nazi ideals.  
> Those ideals are nowhere near the truth or my own beliefs. I do not share nor tolerate nazi racist and mysoginist ideas.
> 
> *The text between lines at the beginning is my narration of what we get to see in the show, so if you remember it well or just don't need the context THAT much detailed, you can skip it, but I includad because it's SO FULL of subtext.
> 
> *This isn't directly related to the story, just my nerd facts, so you may skip.  
> Non-sexual spanking is a cathartic experience that many practice for different reasons, but I'd like to note this (https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/my-afternoon-with-dr-don-the-male-spanking-therapist-2) article about how this man, who now works as a proffessional spanker, started spanking young men who grew up without a father. They *paid* him to spank them... just to know how it felt to be taken care by a man, and I just find that incredubly cute.

_Deliver the shipment, gather information._ Do not _open the shipment._ That was Joseph Blake's mission for the Reich.

He was guided to Obergruppenführer Smith's office to reccount his mission. After being kept in wait for long time, he was dissappointed with a lower soldier (one _Major Klemm_ ) coming to debrief him instead of Smith. The Obergruppenführer must have had more important things to attend in person than _Joe_.

* * *

"I don't understand, Mr Blake" Klemm asked after Joe finished his story. He didn't stop the sophisticated machine that was recording everything Joe said. "These insurgents on the mountain... What did they want from you?"

"The film" answered Joe with a drag off his cigarette.

"But obergruppenführer Smith ordered you not to take the film with you".

"Yes". Yes he did. Quite explicitly. The Obergruppenführer hadn't been happy to learn that Joe had opened the shipment and discovered the film hidden inside, so he instructed him not to watch it. And not to let it fall to enemy hands. Then, if met the _Man in the high castle_ , **shoot to kill**.

But Joe, hard-headed, had had to fall for the girl. He had ended up aiding Resistance members. And he had watched the film.

...And let it fall to enemy hands.

"But I though I had a real shot at finding the Man in the high castle". Joe lowered his gaze to the nasty machine that was recording his every word and cotinued. "And as it turns out, the film was the only thing that convinced them I wasn't a spy". It had saved his life!

"So you lost the film". Klemm wrote that down.

"I wouldn't say I lost it".

"Then you still have it?" the major fixated his gaze in Joe's.

"No". Joe didn't like this man.

"So you lost it".

As Klemm was talking again, the big door opened with a blast, and Obegruppenführer John Smith himself entered the room. Both Klemm and Joe stood up respectfully, Smith's inherent authority already taking in the large office.

"What did you lose Joe?" Smith asked straight to bussiness as he walked past them to his desk.

"The film I was carrying, sir". Joe turned around to look at him. "It was taken from me" He felt terribly stupid and embarrassed. "...by Lemuel Washington, a leader of the Resistance in Canon City" he finished.

The officer looked notably displeased. He took the written transcrip of Joe's account of his mission and went to read it as he sat in a leather chair, a little apart from Joe's and Klemm's.

"Carry on, Major". He told Klemm and gave Joe a quick glance "Don't mind me, Joe".

The interview didn't go much further before Smith, having read Joe's account, asked:

"Are any pages missing, Major?"

"No, obergruppenführer, I don't believe so".

"I don't see any mention of the girl". He looked at Joe meaningfully. 

"The girl?" Joe said with innocent eyes trying to appear nonchalant. "You don't mean the girl who died in the car... that's the only girl I can think of. The one the Marshall was after? Honestly she was no one". Julianna was with the Resistance, but Joe couldn't bring himself to tell on her. Or _himself_. He had helped her murder the _Origami man_ (who Smith had *ordered* him not to cross... the same one who happened to work for the Reich and held a high rank). Hopefully the obergruppenführer wouldn't find out _that_.

" _No one_ " Smith repeated almost mockingly. "This marshall, Mr. Kahler, what did he say in his report?" he asked Klemm. The major checked on his notes.

"That Mr. Blake defended the girl," he replied pointedly, "told him to leave her alone because he was using her".

"That's correct," Joe hurried to say, "I _thought_ she was the courier you had told me about, sir". They couldn't blame him for being... _mistaken_.

Smith was in no way happy with what he was hearing. "Did Major Klemm tell you how important it is not to leave anything out of this account, Joe?" He asked frowning.

"Yes, sir, he did" the youngest man admited.

Smith closed the transcript and reached to whisper something to Klemm while Joe sat uneasily.

"Is there anything you would like to add to your transcript, Joe?" Smith finally asked with formality. 

"I don't think so, sir".

"I'm sorry, is that a _yes_ or a _no_?" Both uniformed men looked at Joe. Smith wasn't a man to give nonsense to, and straight answers was something he demanded even from his kids.

"No, obergruppenführer" Joe declared more firmly.

* * *

Alone now, John walked in small circles next to Joe's chair, meditating about what his rebellious apprentice had done.

"Sir" Joe stood up and walked towards Smith to try to make a case for himself. "I know it doesn't seem like a complete success... But my mission wasn't to retrieve a film or kill the Man in the high castle, sir" he explained almost convincing himself, and continued more petulantly. "My mission was to identify and gather intelligence on key figures in the Resistance. Then I found Lemuel Washington, I did that. I kept my cover intact".

Smith looked away impatiently. "Lemuel Washington dissappeared yesterday. Along with his entire family". He was angry. "We don't know where he is". _Shit._ Joe held himself from biting his lip like when he was younger.

"Oh you failed, Joe." said dissaprovingly "You. Failed" he repeated. "Do you know why you failed?" the man asked sternly. "You are one component in a complex machine that only works if every part does exactly what it's suppossed to do in sync with the whole" he explained "Now, if you decide, without knowing what the other components are doing, to simply go your own way, eventually that machine is gonna' break down".

The agent had to invoke every bit of courage inside him not to avoid Smith's intense gaze.

"Don't-Ever-Disobey a direct order from me again, Joe" the man finished dangerously.

Now Joe did look down in shame. He was feeling something burning inside.

"I'm sorry, Obergruppenführer".

"Okay" replied the alluded almost too forgivingly. "There's some progress. See, you came here trying to convince yourself that you hadn't done anything wrong" Smith pointed out sternly. "A man does better. A man takes responsability. Thomas would have already presented himself for punishment obligingly **".**

Right. The son.

Thomas Smith was everything that Joe wasn't: dilligent student, model hitler youth, Smith's own blood.

He couldn't help it, Joe felt his blood rush, _jealous_. _He_ had nothing he could brag about himself; Joseph Blake was everything society didn't want: errant, unreliable, fatherless.

His superior wasn't finished, of course.

"You lack discipline, Joe. You just don't know how to obey and you blatantly disregard authority".

"I already know it all. I read your files and evaluated your training results. So no excuses here" he warned "when I recruited you I already knew you were undocile and that you grew up without a father to set you straight."

He continued. "When it comes to right and wrong, women always tend to be sentimental, let their affection overpower their morals. Your mother must have loved you but she could no possibly give you the kind of discipline you required, the poor woman". _What mother could possibly stand her children's distress?_ Smith thought of his own wife, Helen. She had occasionally slapped their daughters, but hadn't gone further than that; and she would _never_ lay a finger on her precious boy. 

"Mothers start punishing and end up conforting the culprit child" It was John's job to really correct their children, just like it had been his father's job to correct him.

"... You were spoiled, Joe. This is not your fault, but you were spoiled and don't fully understand consequences. Or commands".

Did he mean the _rotten_ kind of spoiled, no hope for him? Joe had always been a failure, had carried some invisible sign of _troublemaker_ over his head. Even the man who had given him the film while undercover seemed more concerned about Joe messing up than about him being a spy. But Obergruppenführer Smith had miraculously seen potential in Joe when he saw him training, and if not for him, such an important mission would have never been given to him.

But now Smith thought it all had been a waste, whatever potential he might have seen, could never be reached, because Joe was _spoiled_.

Reading the youth's broken hearted face, his mentor could tell the boy thought he was irredeemable. Served him right, if only for a second. John, in the other hand, knew better. He believed there was no point where visciousness couldn't be broken, no matter how long it had been incubated. Middle aged traitors were re-educated by the Reich to become useful citizens, and the black had been tamed back into the servitude role they belonged to, even after decades of being left to roam free. Certainly, Joe Blake could and _would_ be fixed.

Smith took a step closer to his subordinate, it was time to divert the conversation where he wanted it. "Now, I have to correct that".

Disciplinary hearings was something Joe was very familiar with, until John took him under his wing.

"You **will** take this because _I_ am giving to you". Was it a command? Or a statement, that Smith trusted Joe to take whatever he gave him?

"You know that everything I do is always and only to the Reich's best interests. To all's best interests, _your_ best interests, Joe".

"There is no best remedy for kids' reckless nature than a healthy dose of fear for the father's arrival at dinnertime, and a healthier dose of pain after he learns of the child's crimes of the day. That's what kept me away from trouble growing up".

_A healthy dose of fear_. The thought made Joe shiver. Truth be told, he had always been a little afraid of John Smith. Actually, very much afraid. But was the Obergruppührer inpmlying that...

When Joe caught himself thinking what he was thinking, he felt ashamed with himself. But not because the possibility embarrassed him, but because it was a presumptous assumption on his behalf, to even think he might.

His first thought wasn't wrong. His second thought was.

Guessing that Joe might not know what was expected of him, Smith grabbed a fist of his blond hair and pulled it down at the same time he took a seat, forcing Joe, who was standing beside him and couldn't take a step forward with the chair in his way, to bend at the waist. John didn't hurt the boy as much as he could have, yet the movement was anything but gentle. The violence was meant to reiterate the gravity of the situation **,** this was going to be Joe's first _real_ spanking and he didn't want him too much in awe at the novelty of it that he would get out of focus.

His lesser didn't resist him. Pastors said children secretly _longed_ to be punished when they had wronged. John remembered he didn't long for his father belt at all whenever he knew he was gonna get it, but maybe that was because he _knew_ he was gonna get it, Joe had never had that.

"Lose the pants, Joe. Shorts too". Joe's weight wasn't resting on Smith's lap, so even bent down as he was, he could manage.

 _So... the officer was going **all** the way_.

Joe hadn't know what to expect; going bare scared him, but it was also much more fulfilling. It made him feel more childish, and more dominated. And it made the touch more intimate.

...And for the moment it gave him something to do with his hands, which he didn't know where to put. 

"Next time, you will take them down before bending, understood?" " _Next time_. Smith _planned_ to keep doing this. "Yes, Obergruppenführer".

As Joe's back was getting tired, he went to rest his hands on the chair's left edge to help support himself (careful not to touch his superior's leg), but before he could reach the chair's surface, two heavy hands pushed him down, and he could barely react to avoid craking his chin in the chair. Not voicing his startle, Joe just rested his open palms on the floor.

 _Now_ his weight was resting on Smith's lap.

Smith had been wrong to think that Joe's mother didn't discipline him. All through his childhood, she had turned unsuspected objects into spanking weapons -newspapers, shoes, kitchenware, books, a flute, his own tin toys-. But Miss Blake's spankings didn't have quite the ceremony Smith's represented. Her worn-out apron, wooden spoon and skinny legs had no way to stand against the Obergruppenführer's muscly uniform-clad thights.

 _This was happening_. Obergruppenführer John Smith had him bare over his knees for a spanking. 

Pressing his left hand at the center of Joe's back, John lifted his right arm and smacked the man's upturned bottom harshly. Even his own hand stung; it was much harder than he had ever hit his children, but Joe had gotten it too lightly for far too long.

When Joe felt the first smack, Smith's hand covering him almost entirely, he caught himself realising that any less force would have dissaponit him.

But Obergruppenführer John Smith _always_ outdid himself.

As the sound echoed in the large office, Smith continued landing unyielding swats. As he expected, Joe contained himself from making any noise, althought it was obvious it was affecting him, the way he held and then let out his breath.

Soon Joe realised too that he stood no chance of even _imagining_ how much Smith's palm could hurt until feeling it himself.

Superlatively, that was. It could hurt _superlatively_.

"You've been a bad boy, Joe. Could barely call you a man". Joe shivered. "You half-follow orders, tell me half-truths" Smith tutted.

"Authority is to be observed. You do not disobey orders. You do-not-disobey- _me_ ". At the rythm he kept, each word was punctuated with a smack, except "obey", which was conveniently long enough for two.

A full minute passed, and maintaining composure was getting harder. Joe never lifted hands or feet from the floor, and he better not, but John wanted to hear him cry to release him. It was true that the longer the young man stayed silent, the prouder the high officer would be. Also, he would feel ashamed if his agent had broken quickly, not quite what was expected of a man of the Reich, and certainly not one of _Smith's_ men. Still, he wanted to see Joe cry, to make wholly clear that Joe was at _his_ mercy, and that mercy was something he didn't have much of.

 _Would it be over soon?_ Joe didn't dare to ask, but he wished so. But then, he had _failed_ ; it would take more than a little spanking to make amends. Maybe Smith planned to have him flogged like a traitor later?

Joe started to squirm (just a little), and John decided to let it go that far. But any further squirming he would consider insubordination, and shall punish it accordingly.

Right now Joe's cheeks looked a rosy pink, but they'd would be bruised by the time Smith finished.

 _I'm sorry, I'm sorry sir_. 

The younger man's arms were now trembling terribly "Be still, Joe". Smith warned before he tried to kick or something.

"Yes, sir". His voice was high pitched. He was shutting his eyes so fiercely that they would hurt... if his focus weren't somewhere else. His nose was itching uglyly.

"Wanna' cry, Joe?" He didn't answer. "That's a typical reaction to pain, Joey" Smith tried with a tender nickname.

"M-may I, sir?" _Why, you're practically crying already!_ Smith simply chuckled and gave him two particularly hard swats at the top of Joe's thights, and used his left hand to pinch the blond's neck.

Tears started to escape, and some snot too. Joe would still try to clench his jaw to stop the cries, but it was opening in its own behalf.

He had been trained to endure torture: he was suppossed to use his faith in the Reich as an anchor to avoid breaking down. But this wasn't an interrogation; there was no information Joe could betray to stop this. He did keep in mind his faith... in Smith. Joe _really_ wanted to be good for Smith, and Smith to know that he wanted to do good by him.

Smith put his shoulder to use. Soon enough, Joe's loud whimpers grew to pitiful screams, reaching a volume where the thick walls, usually enough to shield delicate State matters from inquisitive ears, couldn't muffle them. 

The pain was too much. All of Joe's natural instincts were to break free, self-control barely enough to keep his palms on the floor instead of covering his backside. Or throwing punches at his attacker. He tried to remind himself how disgraceful that would be, but honor was hard to keep in mind in that situation. 

Anyway, Joe knew there was no use. John Smith was pretty strong, and a condecorated soldier. He also literally had an _army_ to help hold Joe in place, were he to miraculously break from his grip. Joe had no choice. Not only was submitting his only option, he wasn't even _needed_ to do so. The punishment would carry on, whether he cooperated or not.

So Joe just kept crying. He just wailed and sobbed and cried (and if he had known any other kind of cry, he would have cried that way too). And he submited. Whack after whack.

Finally, the Obergruppenführer decided it had been enough; having Joe go through further punishment might be crueler than strictly neccessary.

"Anything to say?" Smith asked after pausing.

"I'm sorry sir!"

"After this, you will see how much easier it's for you to obey my commands". It all had been an act of kindness.

"Yes, obergruppenführer". Joe was quite sold in that matter.

He wished he could offer him actual improvement, instead of vain apologies. He had already apologized too much. If only Earth would swallow him down, away from his failures and his disappointed mentor.

But running away was the coward route. Instead he showed Smith the respect he deserved; respect Joe rightly felt for him.

"You may stand and fix your clothing".

Joe obeyed quickly, and after wiping the tears that stained his face (althought new ones were still forming) he faced Smith at attention, clanged his boot toes and saluted.

 _Sieg heil,_ he could have said, but stoped himself not sure how it would be taken.

The attention posistion wasn't making Joe's throbbing buttocks any good, but he thought his comfort should be lowest in the priorities hierarchy right now.

Smith felt truly moved. Thomas too had taken to salute him after being spanked. John had grown in the barbaric America, so there was no saluting back then, but still he couldn't picture himself doing anything similar after a spanking, even though he respected his father. 

"Thank you sir. I do appreciate everything you've been doing for me". The alluded man nodded aprovingly. That was the line of thought he wanted his mentee to keep.

"I will repeat or _increase_ the dose whenever needed". Smith said, and nodded again.

"Yes sir. Thank, you, Obergruppenführer".

Not knowing what else to do, assuming everything had already been said and done, Joe retrieved the jacket he had earlier tossed in a chair, ready to leave. He needed rest and and Smith would have certainly already call it a day if he hadn't had to deal with him, but he had yet to dismiss him.

Actually, Smith had one more thing to say.

"Where are you spending V.A. Day tomorrow, Joe?" Major Klemm chose that moment to re-enter cassually, addressing Smith as if he wasn't interrupting anything. Joe was able to read _The grasshopper lies heavy_ in one ofnthe folders he carried.

"Here are the files you requested obergruppenführer".

"Oh, _thank you!_ I'll take these home with me". Smith said _gleefully_. They continued as if Joe wasn't there "Bring the car around, major". "Mmm-hmm" complied the latter before letting himself out again.

"Well?" Smith's attention was suddenly on Joe again.

"Um... I don't know, I don't have any plans" and he reminded himself to add "sir". He could always call Rita and celebrate with her and Buddy, althought he might not feel up to celebrate in his current state.

"Well, then you'll be my guest!", Smith declared pleased.

"Sir..."

"Joe" interrupted Smith pointedly. "I'm inviting you to my house for the celebration" said in a tone that sounded more like an order than an invitation.

"I know you haven't spent a lot of time among your own recently," he explained "and uh, tomorrow's about community" he paused and eyed Joe desicively "I'ts about family".

 _Family_. Joe felt something warm within his chest, and his eyes might as well have damped if they weren't already damp from all the crying. Could he possibly be still in Smith's good graces? "Thank you sir, I'd like that very much".

"See you there" Smith said kindly on his way out. _The familiarity_.

"11 'o clock sharp" he continued; he was already in his commanding-persona again " **Don't be late** ".

**Author's Note:**

> My, Smith's little games with Joe's mind. He makes him crave for attention. You cannot convince me Klemm's entrance to "bring the files" in the show wasn't a planned move to make Joe feel ignored.


End file.
